Bible in the Jury Room?

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The case was murder and the defendant got the death sentence. The trial was nine years ago. Should the Bible have been consulted to determine the death sentence? Adams County (Colorado) Judge John Vigil has to decide if Robert Harlan's death sentence should be overturned because a juror requested a Bible be brought in during deliberations over the penality phase of the trail. An established priciple of jurisprudence is that juries have to stick strickly to evidence presented and if juries consult the Bible/Koran or any holy text it may become and inquitistion rather than a fair trail say the defense. On the other side, "jurors should be able to turn to their own moral code to make moral decisions" says the District Attorney Bill Ritter.

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Maybe the rules vary from place to place. I just served on jury duty here, and there's no way a bible (or any other documentation from the outside) would have been allowed during our deliberations.

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If it's so important to the person, they should have brought their own damn bible (but since they try to get you to swear on oath on one during the trial, I s'pose it was assumed that there would be one sitting about).

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lol From what I've read on this case it seems there is major disagreement as to exactly what happened. Two jurors claim one other quoted a passage from a bible but they said it was on two different days. 4 others say no bible passage was ever quoted. The rest don't seem to remember.

I haven't seen anything saying a bible (or notes from) was actually in the jury room - just that the one juror quoted a bible passage.

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Well, what's the big deal, then? Hopefully us nonbelievers are strong enough in mind (though jury selection procedures seem to undermine this) that we can come to our decision independent of whatever dogmas/belief systems might be influencing our fellow jurors.

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Well, if he did use biblical references to convince others then it wasn't evidence entered during the trial so it would invalidate the jury proceedings. Being that the case in question is a Death Penalty case, invalidating the jury decision would be a big deal to the guy sitting on death row and for the opponents of the death penalty.

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Seems to me that if a jury is going to be deciding a capital case, the lawyers will ask potential jurors about their views of the death penalty during voir dire. Assuming that occurred, anyone with a Biblical point of view on the matter should've talked about it then.

If, one the other hand, someone declares their religious view of the matter for the first time during deliberations, I think there is a problem.

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Is there any sort of precedent for invalidating a jury's verdict on the basis of improper comportment during deliberation? I've never heard of the actins of a jury itself being the basis for any sort of change in a verdict -- the process of jury selection, yes, but not the actual actions of the jury.

I'm curious now to know what did transpire in that room; certainly in a room of 12 people the likelihood of every person really making a decision solely on the merits of the case and not being browbeaten by stronger personalities seems very low to me...

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I think that verdicts can be overturned because of juror behavior, but I'm no lawyer. We need a legal mind to weigh in here!

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it will be interesting to see how the judge rules on this appeal. i will post here as events occur.

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do you have a link to the story handy?

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Well as long as the charge was only murder -- no big deal.

If the charge had been homosexual conduct; adultery; sodomy with a sheep; making it with an Aunt or some of those other capital crimes featured in the Bible -- it might matter.

Also if the defendent had been disrespectful of his parents -- another transgression unishable, according to the Bible, by death -- it might have mattered.

In any case, the final decision did not involve stoning -- or did it???

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http://rockymountainnews.com/drmn/religion/article/0,1299,DRMN_61_1937832,00.html

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Frank Apisa wrote:

Well as long as the charge was only murder -- no big deal.

If the charge had been homosexual conduct; adultery; sodomy with a sheep; making it with an Aunt or some of those other capital crimes featured in the Bible -- it might matter.

Also if the defendent had been disrespectful of his parents -- another transgression unishable, according to the Bible, by death -- it might have mattered.

In any case, the final decision did not involve stoning -- or did it???

Well, there's the trouble with the jury system; whether or not the book was in the room, there aren't really any controls (nor should there be, if you believe in the system) on the beliefs of the people on the jury. (Of course, this isn't true in practice, and I've no doubt that most attorneys prefer to have a jury stocked with impressionable, emotionally driven, easily persuaded individuals.)

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Patio Dog

I agree with you.

I hope you realize my post was "tongue in cheek" and laced with irony.

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Sí, señor.

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Thanks for posting that article, dyslexia. Here's a quote from the beginning anecdote, about the clergyman who wasn't seated on a jury:

As a man who had devoted his life to issues of right and wrong, Valantasis believed he could make a meaningful contribution to resolving the case.

"But they didn't want someone who actually thought about these moral issues," said Valantasis, now a professor at Iliff School of Theology. "They didn't want anyone with really strong moral convictions."

The man strikes me as more than a little presumptuous, and I wouldn't want him on the jury if I were on trial. How would he know that he's the only one with "strong moral convictions"?

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D'artagnan wrote:

The man strikes me as more than a little presumptuous, and I wouldn't want him on the jury if I were on trial. How would he know that he's the only one with "strong moral convictions"?

Amen.

In fact, how would he know what was moral and what is not moral. Wouldn't the world be a horrible place if we really used the Bible to decide that -- rather than just giving it the lip service these folks do.

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Bible in the Jury Room?

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